Oregon School Year Should Be Longer, State Panel Says In Report

SALEM, OR – It's pretty safe to say that no one is happy with the four-year high school graduation rate for Oregon students. At 77 percent, it's the third lowest in the United States.

That is just one of the many issues being addressed by the Joint Interim Committee on Student Success. The 14-member legislative committee has spent months traveling the state, visiting dozens of schools and hosting town hall meetings.

What the legislators discovered is that students today live in an environment much different than the ones in which they had grown up. Today's students deal with issues ranging from violence and poverty to hunger and homelessness at levels almost incomprehensible to many adults.

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This week, the panel reconvened in Salem to present a preliminary report on what they've found along with four initial goals and recommendations.

The goals:

• Support healthy, attached family relationships to help ensure every child is ready to learn when they enter school by providing access to services for all children and families who need them. This includes, but is not limited to, prenatal care, home visiting, education and engagement for new parents, and school readiness programs.
• Provide all children with access to affordable high-quality preschool programs.
• Provide sufficient resources to schools and families to meet the behavioral health, physical health, nutritional and support needs so students can reach their full potential to learn.
• Maximize learning time for students.

Along with each goal, the committee developed several policy recommendations to make them goals achievable.

While it's the fourth goal listed, the one that's like to receive the most attention is the goal of maximizing learning time.

To make that happen, the committee is looking at the policy of adding more days to the school year.

The committee determined that "all students would likely benefit, the cost can be "substantial." The estimated cost of adding just one day would cost the state $52 million every two years.

Members will now draft a final report including cost recommendations. That report will then be the basis for a bill to be introduced next session.

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